Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Interim director to be named for Leopold Center

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March 31, 2010

AMES, Iowa -- The search for the next director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture ended in March without a candidate being chosen for the position.

Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy has instructed Dean Wendy Wintersteen of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to name an interim director to serve over the course of the next academic year until a new search is organized.

The current director, Jerry DeWitt, will retire June 30, 2010. DeWitt has served since November 2005, when he was appointed interim director by Dean Wintersteen. On January 1, 2007, he was appointed director for a three-year term.

President Geoffroy informed the search committee, the Leopold Center Advisory Board and Leopold Center staff of the status of the search on Monday, March 29.

The search had brought four candidates to campus last fall for interviews. As outlined in the center’s founding legislation, the ISU president decides on the director position from qualified candidates forwarded by the Center Advisory Board. After the interviews last fall, the board forwarded the names of two candidates, North Carolina State University plant pathologist Frank Louws and Ricardo Salvador, program director for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and former chair of the ISU Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture. The position was offered to Louws, who declined. Salvador was invited back to campus for further interviews in March, but was not offered the position.

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